1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a hydrogen production device, and more particularly to a continuous hydrogen production device and method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present, hydrogen gas is considered an excellent fuel for producing clean energy because of light weight, high energy density and having no pollution. The method of hydrogen production by water spilt reaction, especially reaction of aluminum with water to produce hydrogen, has been researched and also described in various patents and reports. Although the approaches using water spilt reaction have not been proven commercially viable yet, they are still under active development, especially for clean energy application.
Since pure aluminum metal reacts with oxygen in air to generate an aluminum oxide film, the aluminum oxide film covers the surface of aluminum metal while exposed in air and prevents aluminum metal from further oxidization. Therefore, generally hydrogen production by reaction of aluminum with water to be actively taken place requires firstly breaking or destroying the aluminum oxide film on the surface of aluminum metal. The hydrogen production method by reaction of aluminum with water can use various promoters to promote hydrogen production. Such a promoter, for example, can be hydroxides, oxides, salts, or combination of oxides and salts, etc. Or, aluminum metal can be modified to promote hydrogen production. For example, alkali metals or alkaline earth metals can form an alloy with aluminum metal to be used in the water spilt reaction instead of aluminum metal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,676 (by A. Chaklader) discloses a method of producing hydrogen by reacting a metal (Al, Mg, Si, or Zn) with water in the presence of a ceramic catalyst. The ceramic catalyst usually is an oxide, preferably aluminum oxide or carbon. However, the additive has functionality only if the additive is in contact with aluminum and the additive and aluminum should be blended thoroughly to react with each other.
In conclusion, the method using strong base such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, etc., to break or destroy the aluminum oxide film on the surface of aluminum metal, referring to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,308,248 and 6,506,306, comprises using a reaction solution with alkaline and thus needs a special reaction container to prevent from being damaged by the reaction solution. On the other hand, the method of using modified aluminum, that is, aluminum alloy, has higher production cost and has more difficulty in metal recovery because other metals are used. Moreover, the cost of the recovery process having several different kinds of metals is also higher. Therefore, since energy acquirement should still satisfy clean and low cost requirements, it is important to have a novel hydrogen production device and method to achieve the purposes of having a high reaction rate and acquiring low-cost clean energy.